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Kal-L (Earth-Two)
breaking out of the "paradise dimension" with his wife Lois-Kent, Superboy-Prime and Alexander Luthor, Jr. of Earth-Three]] Despite mostly being retired from heroic actions, Kal-L was one of the first heroes recruited by Harbringer and the Monitor to fight back the assault on all populated universes of the Multiverse. Kal-L was pivotal among many of the battles to defeat the Anti-Monitor who was eliminating positive matter realities in order to increase the Anti-Monitor's power levels to allow him to recreate the resulting universe in his own dark image. Kal-L and many heroes from different universes of the DC multiverse engaged in several battles against the Anti-Monitor but was not able to directly stop him directly despite massive losses of heroes as well as many of the populated universes. Kal-L and the others directly assaulted the Anti-Monitor at the "Dawn of Time" which caused the various universes to collaspe into one singular universe that was able to withstand the Anti-Monitor's assault. Unfortunately, the singular universe erased the history of the universe that Kal-L came from and most of the people he knew outside of the heroic community, including his wife Lois Lane-Kent. Near insane with grief at the loss of his wife and entire history and all the people he knew, Kal-L was restrained by the far more powerful Earth-One Superman until he was able to recollect himself ''Crisis on Infinite Earth'' #11. Kal-L was able to gather himself together despite his intense sense of loss and along with the equally alone Superboy-Prime directly attacked and killed the Anti-Monitor. The resulting energy release resulting from the Anti-Monitor's physical death threatened to overcome and kill Kal-L and Superboy-Prime. Alexander Luthor, Jr. of Earth-Three appeared offering to transport them out of the resulting shock wave but still grieving Kal-L decided to end his life rather than transport into the pocket dimension Alex showed Kal-L until Lois Kent emerged from that locale. Alexander Luthor, Jr. of Earth-Three had saved Lois Kent from the universe reset by taking her from the dying Multiverse before the battle at the "Dawn at Time" thus saving her from the reset. Luthor then took himself, Kal-L, Lois Kent and Superboy-Prime into the pocket dimension saving them from the destruction of the Anti-Monitor's exploding energies and an universe that mostly no longer remembered them. Infinite Crisis Kal-L continued to watch the new Earth from the pocket "Paradise" dimension. He began to be disturbed by what he saw as the growing darkness that was apparently affecting the Earth, especially in the indecisiveness of his resulting counterpart. That darkness began to affect the Paradise dimension and as a result, Lois began to get deathly ill despite the pocket dimension being insulated from the outside reality. Deciding that the resulting Earth had been corrupted, Kal-L had decided along with Alexander Luthor Jr. and Superboy Prime to reformat the existing universe based on them as the primary template rather than the current incarnations of the heroes. Kal-L hoped that would reverse the effect on his dying wife Lois Lane Kent even though that would kill the current wife of the current Superman though he thought of it as merely "folding the current incarnations into his template" though he did know that those who would be "folded" would cease to live. Deciding that his greed was permissible to do against the corruption he saw in the current universe, Kal-L punched his way out of the pocket dimension and the quartet established their base of operation in a cave in Antarctica. Kal-L revealed himself to Power Girl as well as to the current incarnation of his best friend Batman in hopes to get them to agree to his plan to recreate the universe to his expectations. Both refused him after being shown the Earth-Two versions of their histories though Kara was more acceptant to Kal-L than the current Wayne who argued against Kal-L for losing his own version of the Batman Family and himself over the already dead of cancer Police Commissioner Bruce Wayne of Earth-Two. Kal-L continued on his quest to bring back his version of history alongside Superboy-Prime and Alexander Luthor Jr. which culminated in the recreation of an exact duplicate of Pre-Crisis Earth-Two, though it was completely unpopulated. Seeing his goal achieved, Kal-L was overjoyed to see his old world back as the potential cure to his wife's pending death. Kal-L's joy turned to heartbreak when Lois died despite their return to Earth-Two. The current Kal-El heard Kal-L cry out in agony and came to Earth-Two to investigate. Kal-L lashed out at him, blaming Kal-El for "corrupting" Earth-Two thus killing Lois. Wonder Woman arrived on Earth-Two and restrained Kal-L. She and Kal-EL made him realize that reconstructing the universe would not bring about the changes that Kal-L had hoped as the recreated Earth-Two clearly showed. Seeing that he was wrong and that the ambitions of recreating the universe would not bring about an improvement, Kal-L decided to correct his mistake. Alexander Luthor, Jr. and Superboy-Prime decided to continue to recreate the universe in order to achieve their goals despite the pleas from the current heroes and Kal-L to stop. Seeing that Superboy-Prime and Alexander Luthor, Jr. were committed to reshaping the universe, Kal-L directly attacked them in hopes of preventing more deaths. Superboy-Prime had decided to directly assault the individual people he considered unworthy in the current universe most notably the current Superboy, Conner. The battle between the two Superboys ended with Prime killing the vastly underpowered Conner as Prime's power levels were shown to be literally infinite with his physical strength levels able to push planets out of orbit unaided, which was beyond Conner, Kal-El and Kal-L levels. Nevertheless the two Supermen realized that Superboy-Prime was completely out of control and was openly killing people and not merely intent on just recreating the universe. Alongside many powerful heroes, Kal-L and Kal-El decided to attack Superboy-Prime headon to stop his murderous rampage. Deciding to push Superboy Prime through a red sun to depower his strength levels to a far more manageable level in hopes of snapping him out of his depression. Seeing that Kal-L had turned away from their original plan to reshape the universe to fit their demands, Superboy Prime attacked Kal-L directly venting his full rage and frustration at his one time ally. Despite the effects of the red sun, Superboy-Prime was still vastly overpowered to Kal-L's own power levels. The attack was so vicious that Superboy-Prime smashed Kal-L's internal organs and skeletal structure, killing him. But the time that Superboy-Prime dedicated to attacking Kal-L allowed Kal-El to recover and to drain down Superboy-Prime even further lower levels, thus knocking him out, whereby their combined attacks were able to stop Superboy-Prime. Kal-L died in Power Girl's arms after realizing his mistake and stating that he would never leave her even though she would not be able to see him. Kal-L was buried on the new Earth that he died protecting from Superboy-Prime, alongside Conner and his wife. Possible resurrection Justice Society of America vol. 3, #1 (February 2007), foreshadows an arm wearing Kal-L trademark "sweatshirt" collar cuffs, bursting up from Kal-L's grave as a startled Power Girl looks at the emerging arm calling out Kal-L's name. A later issue shows this to be from a dream Power Girl had, right before the appearance of the Earth-22 Superman. | Powers = Kryptonian Physiology: Kal-L's powers were attributed to his Kryptonian physiology, and not the radiation of a yellow sun, as all Kryptonians native to this reality did have superpowers in their original red sun system. Hence, Kal-L's powers did not fluctuate under the presence or lack of yellow sun light. This was the primary rationale used for his lower superpower levels to his other dimensional counterparts and his aging. :Superhuman Strength :Invulnerability :Superhuman Stamina :Flight :Superhuman Speed :Super-Breath :Super Hearing :Heat Vision :Super Vision ::*''Telescopic Vision'' ::*''X-Ray Vision'' ::*''Microscopic Vision'' who was routinely shown to fight to a standstill against the Earth-One Superman (All Star Squadron Vol 1, #36 (1984)]] Kal-L's sensory powers include telescopic vision, heat vision, microscopic vision, X-Ray vision as well as being able to hear sounds far too slight to pick up by most life forms. | Abilities = *'Independent Flight': Kal-L was not originally shown as being able to launch himself and fly in outer space unaided. *'Muscular Control': This ability would would allow Kal-L to engage in super breath and hold his breath for extreme periods of time. Several 1940s Superman stories extended this to giving the Superman of this era the ability to contort the muscles of his face to give him the ability to appear as completely different people which made Kent and Superman appear as totally different people. This power is not specifically attributed to Kal-L and is commonly understood to be another "Golden Age Superman". | Strength = Though Kal-L's exact strength is unknown, it is at least in the multi-megaton range, as evident by being able to push ocean liners into drydock on his own power. Kal-L did have limits to his strength level - he could not, for example, move planetary bodies out of their orbit unaided. as the Pre-Crisis Earth-One Superman and Superboy-Prime are able to do, however, he did seem to be at least as powerful as the post-Crisis Kal-El of the New Earth | Weaknesses = *'Magic': Kal-L had a higher than normal vulnerability to magical beings and devices. He was routinely stopped by the Adolf Hitler native to his dimension who possessed the Spear of Longistis commonly referred to as the Spear of Destiny which would overwhelm Kal-L's mind whenever during World War II Kal-L would attempt to invade Germany directly as did other intense magic based heroes such as Wonder Woman and Green Lantern (Alan Scott). This open weakness to magic would manifest in later events such when Kal-L was poisoned by the Stream of Ruthlessness and almost beat his cousin Power Girl to death. *'Kryptonite': Since the destruction of Krypton, its remains (rendered radioactive by the explosion) have been spreading throughout the universe as kryptonite, a crystalline substance whose specific radiation is lethal to Kryptonians native to this reality. In Kal-L's original Earth Two dimention there was only one type of Kryptonite, Green, and its effect is directly poisonous to Earth-Two Kryptonians. The long term effects of other races being in close or direct contact with Earth-Two dimension Kryptonite was unknown. Originally Kryptonite from other realities did directly effect Kryptonians from different realities as when Kal-L battled the Earth-Three dimension Ultraman who was powered by Kryptonite. But after the Crisis on Infinite Earths Kryptonite only seems to effect those who come from the same dimension as the current reality Kryptonite did NOT effect Kal-L who originated from the destroyed Classic Earth-Two reality (Infinite Crisis #5) and the current Superman was not effected by the various Kryptonite samples that originated from the Time Trapper's so called pocket universe against that particular Superboy. *'Kryptonians': Unlike his dimensional counterparts Kal-L was not affected in battling the few Kryptonians native to his reality such as his cousin Power Girl when he was possessed by the Stream of Ruthlessness. Kal-L was shown to be far weaker in scope to so called "infinite powered" other dimensional Kryptonians such as Superman (Earth-One), Ultraman (Earth-Three) and Superboy-Prime, but Kal-L would never retreat from battle with them when he had to despite the large differences in their strength levels to Kal-L. *'Lead': Kal-L could not see through lead with his vision powers. *'Bio Energy': Kal-L's will eventually weaken without rest as his body-generated energies are not inexhaustible. Unlike his other dimensional counterparts, Kal-L was not powered by normal (yellow) sun radiation. Kal-L was not effected by red sunlight and maintained his superpowers in red sun systems unlike the Earth-One and current reality Superman who lose their powers in a red sun system. | Equipment = | Transportation = | Weapons = | Notes = * First appearance as Earth-Two Superman: Justice League of America #73 (1969). | Trivia = * Kal-L's S shield is intentionally six sided and has tails rather than ball endings as drawn from the early 1940s version, though many artists (most notably starting with George Perez in Justice League of America Vol 1 #195-197) usually extended the upper top curve of the S downwards to touch the side of the shield along with the white hair at temple to distinguish Kal-L from the Earth-One Superman * The famous slogan of "truth, justice and the American Way" was changed from the original radio show slogan which stated Superman fought for "truth, honesty and justice" to combat the anti-communism sentiment of the 1950s United States popular culture. | Links = * Kal-L article at Wikipedia * Superman - Through the Ages * Golden Age Superman biography page at the Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe * Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe XXII }} Category:Reporters Category:Earth-Two Characters Category:Flight Category:Energy Absorption Category:Energy Projection Category:Enhanced Senses Category:Enhanced Vision Category:Invulnerability Category:Super-Speed Category:Superhuman Strength Category:Superhuman Stamina Category:Vulnerability to Kryptonite Category:Vulnerability to Magic